Straw Cat Pirates?
by Atlantic Jewel
Summary: When a girl finds a group of kittens in her backyard…she hopes she isn't in a fan fiction. The cats aren't just cats, of course, so all hell could – and will – break loose…but the chaos, secrets, friendship and romance ? could be just what she needs…


ONE PIECE

Straw Cat Pirates?

~O~O~O~

When a girl finds a group of kittens in her backyard…she hopes she isn't in a fan fiction. The cats aren't just cats, of course, so all hell could – and will – break loose…but the chaos, secrets, friendship and romance(?) could be just what she needs…

~O~O~O~

CHAPTER ONE

Meow, Meow?

"I'm going to work now, Emma!"

"Bye, Dad! Drive safe!" She called absentmindedly, all the while swinging the blue Wii Remote around like a sword. "Come on, Link!" She urged the green-clad character, as he was once again trampled by the spiky monster with many teeth. "Don't look like an idiot in front of Groose!" Her actions became more desperate, to the point where she swung her arm out too wide, and it hit the side of her bed. "Ouch!" She cried, dropping the Wii Remote like a hot potato, and that was when the creature on-screen demolished the hero's last life-heart.

Emma gasped, staring at the screen for a moment, before she hung her head in shame and left the room.

She was determined to come back, but not without reinforcements. And, by that, she was going to have a double shot of coffee with three sugars. She also went into the cupboard, to get something to eat, and noticed the last box of Sultanas.

"Score!" She cheered, happy that she got to them before her sister did and also happy that she wouldn't have to prepare anything. She set off back up to her room, determined to resume – and win – the Sealed Grounds Battle.

She sat down again, and concentrated this time, pausing only to sip from her coffee, and open up the box of Sultanas.

"Come on, come on!" Emma cheered, swinging the Wii Remote/sword down one final time, and succeeding in re-sealing the dreaded fanged-beast.

A quick Skyward Strike, and the deed was done.

Feeling quite proud of herself, she reached into the Sultana box, and took one out. She put it into her mouth, just as the family dog started barking, startling her and making her drop the Wii Remote.

"Gah!" She cried, swallowing the sultana whole, and rolling her eyes in frustration. "_Ranger_!" She called, but he continued to bark. Sighing, she stood up, and swiftly walked down the hallway and into the living room, not noticing what was going on outside the house…

~O~O~O~

Storm clouds had gathered over the rural area of Perth City, Australia. They were not normal storm clouds either – they were a strange, darkish green colour, and seemed to bring with them a cold and ominous aura. The thunder came as a distant rumble, starting past the Darling Ranges but slowly moving towards the coast. This in itself was strange, as if the weather had decided to go in reverse. It was creepy, and brought with it signs of danger and…adventure.

Something was about to happen! That much was for certain…

However, it would forever be anyone's guess why things had decided to happen for this particular girl, out of all the other girls in the world, something terribly exciting and spectacular chose to happen to _this _one.

Her name was Emma. She was in her early twenties, and was an attractive girl but not overly pretty. Just slightly above average, with interesting hazel eyes and dark brown hair that was currently partially braided ten times on each side, a reminder of a recent trip toBali. She was short, standing at only about five feet, and slightly underweight.

She wore all black, from head to foot, not because she was trying to make a statement, but because she was more comfortable in the darkest colour imaginable. Some people thought that she was probably trying to hide and, in a way, she was. Because the weather was cold at this time of year, the appearance of hiding was added to, with a long-sleeved turtleneck, black stockings and a black skirt. If she had to describe her dress-sense in terms of anime, she'd probably say she had a Tomoe Hotaru style.

Anime was one thing Emma loved, along with reading, writing, drawing, video games and music. Her parents thought she spent _way_ too much time on all six things but, for Emma, they were an escape from the real world. Though she tended to underrate her own abilities where others were involved, purely because of her own insecurities and lack of self-esteem, she was in fact a very intelligent young lady, with a lot of potential to go very far. Unfortunately, she lacked drive and motivation, based on a complete absence of self-confidence. She wasn't sure of herself, and was cautious about taking risks, simply because she'd been knocked back so many times in the past.

Standing under the stormy skies that fateful afternoon, was a girl who had been tormented in high school, bullied (unintentionally) at home, rejected in the workplace, and couldn't seem to find her place in the world no matter how hard she looked.

She stood with her hands on her hips, and shouted: "_Ranger_!" Her eyes scanned the rural property, checking for any signs of the big black dog. She called again: "_Ranger_!"

The winds had begun to pick up, and were now howling. They whipped her skirt and hair about her, giving her the appearance of an otherworldly person as she strode out into the light rain that had now begun to pour. "_Ranger_!"

With a feeling of relief that instantly turned to panic, she heard the beloved family pet bark and then growl. It was not his usual growl – it was a 'there's something amiss out here, sis' growl.

A bolt of lightning lit up the sky just then, and Ranger's bark became terrified. He then yelped.

Something was wrong – and Emma was the only one home, so she had to do something!

Emma strode out into the storm.

~O~O~O~

Elsewhere in the world, but not too far away, a certain young man groaned, and opened his eyes groggily.

"Where…are we?" He asked, trying to stand up but falling over in the process. "Huh, what the…?" He looked down at a pair of small, black cat paws, and knew that something was wrong. His dark eyes widened in shock. "Oh no! I've been turned into a cat!" He stated the obvious for himself but, somehow, that didn't really calm him down. On the contrary, it seemed to make him a little bit hyper. "This is so cool! Yippee!" The black cat with the messy fur immediately did a back-flip, he was that excited – being turned into a cat was awesome! He was just about to take another look around him, when a low growl sounded from behind him.

Turning around, he saw a huge black dog with floppy ears glaring at him with old but alert dark brown eyes.

"Oh…hello…" The cat suddenly realised that the look in the dog's eyes was nothing short of hostile, no matter how old he was and, not wanting to end up as somebody else's meat, the cat turned tail and bolted up the nearest tree.

The dog's snapping jaws were a mere inches behind him when he left the ground, however – man, that dog could _move_!

The cat clung to the tree with all four sets of claws, his heart pounding with excitement.

The dog stood at the base of the tree, barking for a moment, and that's when the black cat heard someone yell: "_Ranger_!" The voice sounded very far-off.

The dog pricked her ears up for a second and turned his head in the direction of the voice but, just then, he spotted a new target, a growled. A second cat had just slunk out of the undergrowth.

He hissed, the bristles of his _green_ fur standing straight up. The look in his dark eyes said: Bring It On.

A bolt of lightning lit up the sky just then, and the dog barked, terrified. The green cat saw his chance, and sprung up onto the dog's back, causing him to yelp. The green cat scurried up the tree to join the black cat, who said: "Good form, Zoro!" By way of greeting.

"Luffy, where the hell are we?" Zoro snapped back, sitting down and scratching his ear with his back leg. Being in a cat-body was very weird…

"No idea." Luffy replied promptly, and then peered down over the side of the tree branch. "Hey, there's Nami!" He waved one paw wildly to the newcomer. "Hey, Nami, up here!"

"I'm coming up, I'm coming up!" Nami cried, dashing past the snapping dog like some sort of contestant in a weird game show, and scrambling up the tree to join Luffy and Zoro on their branch. She stepped on Zoro's tail in the process. The green cat flinched, and began licking his tail, but the ginger cat took no notice and just sat there, panting, her deep chocolate-coloured eyes wide. "What in the world _happened_ to us, guys?" She asked, looking from Luffy to Zoro.

The latter shrugged as best he could. "If we're even _in_ our own world, anymore – at this rate, I'm sure _anything's_ possible…" He then winced as Nami whacked him over the head with her paw.

"_That's NOT comforting, Zoro_!" The red-head shouted.

"Would you stop injuring me, Nami? !" Zoro cried, just as two sets of paws came at him from either side – one was ginger and belonged to Nami, the other was blonde and belonged to a classy-looking cat who had a tuft of fur over one eye.

"Don't yell at Nami-San!" The blonde cat scolded.

"Hey, Sanji, when did you get here?" Luffy wanted to know.

"About a minute ago." Sanji replied, going to sit beside Nami, who pointedly moved away until she was sitting on the very edge of the tree branch. "I bought Usopp and the lovely Robin-San with me, too." He smiled at the beautiful raven-coloured cat, who smiled back at him.

"I held off the ferocious dog!" The patchy brown and black Usopp-Cat bragged, but nobody believed him for a second.

"Has anyone seen Chopper?" Robin wanted to know.

Lightning lit up the sky again, followed by a crack of thunder that made all of the cats jump, and then a small and terrified voice spoke up: "I'm up here!"

The cats all looked up, to see a brown cat with a blue nose staring down at them with wide, dark eyes.

"Chopper!" Luffy was glad to see him, no matter what animal he was. "Have you been up there the whole time?"

Chopper nodded. "Uh-huh…this is very weird for me…"

The others understood. For a human to suddenly wake up and find himself as a cat was one thing, but for it to happen to a reindeer…

"I think it's about to get a whole lot weirder." Said a new voice, and everyone looked across to the branch of another tree opposite Chopper, to see a black cat that looked remarkably like Luffy clinging effortlessly to his perch. Ace looked pointedly down at the ground, and the rest of them followed his gaze.

A figure dressed all in black had approached the ferocious black dog, who instantly stopped barking and whimpered, running over to her and nudging her hand with his nose.

"Who's that?" Luffy wanted to know, nearly falling out of the tree in his attempt to see the newcomer.

"What's the matter?" The girl asked the dog, pushing her damp braids out of her eyes. "What is it?" She patted the dog's head fondly. "There, there, it's okay – it's only thunder and lightning and some rain. A bit of water never killed anyone."

"That's what _she_ thinks." Ace commented.

"She's pretty." Sanji would have had love-hearts for eyes, had this been a cartoon and not real life.

"But, more importantly, she got that big dog to stop attacking us." Zoro commented, not really caring one way or the other.

"Why? Because Usopp was so scared?" Nami asked innocently, from her perch at the very edge of the tree-branch.

"N-no!" Usopp protested.

"Liar!" Almost everyone cried.

And, at that precise moment, the heroine-to-be happened to look up just as, of course, the storm seemed to die down, and a ray of sunshine shone in through the cloud cover, illuminating the area.

Emma blinked up into the golden light, a little bit dazzled for a moment, before her eyes focused on the forms of eight very _bizarre-looking_ cats.

The once Straw Hat Pirates (and Ace) looked down at Emma.

Emma looked back up at the now-cats.

_Cats…_

Emma's mouth opened in a small gasp, and she said: "You have _got_ to be kidding me…"

And, just then, one of the cats slipped, and tumbled towards the ground…

~O~O~O~

**Back In The One Piece World…**

Franky and Brook looked around them, with no idea where the rest of their crew had gone. Also, their ship was surrounded by dozens of Navy Ships, but that could wait for now…


End file.
